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The Science Museum Rocks Exploration

About this Experience

The Science Museum Rocks Exploration invites your students to explore geology throughout the Museum, in the format of a simulated newspaper. Students write headlines, analyze evidence to react to opinion pieces, investigate Minnesota's hottest rock group (igneous), and travel back in time to the Mississippi River Gorge.

Explain how the fossil record documents the appearance, diversification and extinction of many life forms.

Grade:

7

Strand:

4. Life Science

Subject:

Science

7.4.3.2.2

Use internal and external anatomical structures to compare and infer relationships between living organisms as well as those in the fossil record.

Grade:

7

Strand:

4. Life Science

Subject:

Science

7.4.3.2.4

Recognize that extinction is a common event and it can occur when the environment changes and a population's ability to adapt is insufficient to allow its survival.

Grade:

7

Strand:

4. Life Science

Subject:

Science

8.1.1.1.1

Evaluate the reasoning in arguments in which fact and opinion are intermingled or when conclusions do not follow logically from the evidence given. For example: Evaluate the use of pH in advertising products such as body care and gardening.

Grade:

8

Strand:

1. The Nature of Science and Engineering

Subject:

Science

8.1.1.2.1

Use logical reasoning and imagination to develop descriptions, explanations, predictions and models based on evidence.

Grade:

8

Strand:

1. The Nature of Science and Engineering

Subject:

Science

8.1.3.3.1

Explain how scientific laws and engineering principles, as well as economic, political, social,and ethical expectations, must be taken into account in designing engineering solutions or conducting scientific investigations.

Grade:

8

Strand:

1. The Nature of Science and Engineering

Subject:

Science

8.3.1.1.3

Recognize that major geological events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and mountain building, result from the slow movement of tectonic plates.

Grade:

8

Strand:

3. Earth Science

Subject:

Science

8.3.1.2.1

Explain how landforms result from the processes of crustal deformation, volcanic eruptions, weathering, erosion and deposition of sediment.

Grade:

8

Strand:

3. Earth Science

Subject:

Science

8.3.1.2.2

Explain the role of weathering, erosion and glacial activity in shaping Minnesota's current landscape.

Grade:

8

Strand:

3. Earth Science

Subject:

Science

8.3.1.3.1

Interpret successive layers of sedimentary rocks and their fossils to infer relative ages of rock sequences, past geologic events, changes in environmental conditions, and the appearance and extinction of life forms.

Grade:

8

Strand:

3. Earth Science

Subject:

Science

8.3.1.3.2

Classify and identify rocks and minerals using characteristics including, but not limited to, density, hardness and streak for minerals; and texture and composition for rocks.

Grade:

8

Strand:

3. Earth Science

Subject:

Science

8.3.1.3.3

Relate rock composition and texture to physical conditions at the time of formation of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock.

Grade:

8

Strand:

3. Earth Science

Subject:

Science

8.3.4.1.2

Recognize that land and water use practices affect natural processes and that natural processes interfere and interact with human systems. For example: Levees change the natural flooding process of a river. Another example: Agricultural runoff influences natural systems far from the source.